A 1.2-V low LO-power 3–5 GHz broadband CMOS folded-switching mixer for UWB receiver

Abstract

A 1.2-V broadband down-conversion mixer for ultra-wideband (UWB) system applications is presented. The mixer is fabricated in the 0.18-mum 1P6M standard CMOS process. To achieve a low DC power consumption for UWB applications, the LC folded-switching approach is utilized to reduce the supply voltage and the DC power consumption. A CMOS inverter with current-reuse technique is used in the transconductance stage. The shunt-peaking technology is used to achieve wideband frequency response. From 3-5 GHz, the fabricated mixer exhibits a maximum conversion gain of 8.7 dB, maximum IIP3 of -0.65 dBm, LO-RF isolation of about 30 dB, and a dc power consumption of 8.4 mW at 1.2 V power supply.